IEM Rio CSGO Major failure sparks Astralis revolution Adela Sznajder\/ESL Gaming via ESPATJust days after failing to qualify for the IEM Rio Major, Astralis have begun the process of cleaning house. The question is: Where do they go from here? We all knew how it was going to end \u2014 the only question was when it was going to happen. All the tell-tale signs were there. The lack of intensity, the constant speculation about Asger \u2018Farlig\u2019 Jensen\u2019s future, the disappointing form of the team\u2019s two veterans, the over-reliance on Benjamin \u2018blameF\u2019 Bremer. Astralis hoped that, somehow, the team would be able to weather this storm and still qualify for the Rio Major. After that, there would be time to analyze the state of the team and what the future might hold. But when Kristian \u2018k0nfig\u2019 Wienecke, Astralis\u2019 second star, fractured an ankle in a scuffle in Malta and was ruled out of the RMR, the writing was on the wall. The Danish team looked predictable and toothless in the qualifier, where they were eliminated after losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas, Bad News Eagles and forZe. The IEM Rio Major is the first Valve-sponsored event that Astralis will miss since the organization\u2019s inception, in 2016. The failure to qualify is a significant blow for Astralis, the winningest team at Majors, with four titles. It also ends Andreas \u2018Xyp9x\u2019 H\u00f8jsleth\u2019s streak of Major appearances, leaving Vitality\u2019s Peter \u2018dupreeh\u2019 Rasmussen as the sole player who, barring a last-minute setback, has played at all 18 Majors. Astralis\u2019 management has wasted little time in making changes. After terminating k0nfig\u2019s contract, they are now moving on from head coach Martin \u2018trace\u2019 Heldt. \u201cMore measures\u201d, the Danish organization added, will be introduced in the coming weeks. The situation is so delicate that it warranted a comment from CEO Anders H\u00f8rsholt. Normally, Kasper Hvidt, Astralis\u2019 Director of Sports, is the spokesperson for the organization when it comes to changes to the CS:GO team, their crown jewel. Even in Nicolai \u2018dev1ce\u2019 Reedtz\u2019s transfer to NIP in April 2021, Hvidt was the only senior Astralis figure who came out and commented on the loss of the organization\u2019s biggest star. \u201cNaturally, saying goodbye to a player like \u2018dev1ce\u2019 will be a challenge short term, but changing players is part of the game and we are well prepared,\u201d he said at the time. Those words now stand in stark contrast to the impressions that the team has made since losing dev1ce, forcing the CEO to step up and send out a strong message. \u201cFor too long we have not delivered a clear direction,\u201d H\u00f8rsholt said. \u201cGoing forward, we will be making changes with a focus on the long term, so that we will once again live up to the expectations that we, our partners, and the world around us rightly set.\u201d Why Astralis are not in a hurry As Astralis look to overhaul their squad, the biggest question is which players they should build around. The obvious answer is blameF, who, despite the team\u2019s shortcomings, has looked like an elite player all year long. gla1ve, too, should be a lock, because of his IGL pedigree and the respect that he still commands in the scene, which could play a key role in convincing players to join a team that has long stopped being synonymous with winning championships. Still, his erratic form \u2014 a far cry from the heights he hit in 2018 \u2014 is a cause for concern, as is the fact that he has struggled to find a winning formula without dev1ce. That could be solved if reports of dev1ce\u2019s imminent return to Astralis prove correct. But if the finer details of the transfer are not hammered out soon, Astralis risk watching the deal get hijacked as other teams will certainly look to make changes after the Major. As things stand, Farlig seems to be nearing the end of his time with Astralis. He is an improvement over Philip \u2018Lucky\u2019 Ewald but still not the type of impactful AWPer that the team can play around \u2014 which puts them at a clear disadvantage against most top teams. As criticism reached new levels with each passing tournament, Farlig seemed unable to block out the noise. \u201cI\u2019m obviously doing my best to ignore social media because there\u2019s more of it when you\u2019re in Astralis,\u201d he said in a July interview. It hasn\u2019t helped that reports of Astralis\u2019 interest in dev1ce have come out on the eve of key tournaments. Xyp9x\u2019s future in the team remains a question mark. It\u2019s impossible to ignore that his game has left much to be desired this year (0.95 HLTV rating and 0.85 Impact), but Astralis still see him as an important piece of the squad, one that just last year signed a mega-extension keeping him tied to the organization until 2025. There is also a significant void to fill in the coaching role with trace out of the picture. Astralis have suggested that Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen could begin working in a more direct capacity with the team once his ESIC ban expires in August 2023, but until then, a new coach is required to help restore some order to the chaos. In the end, this is a problem of Astralis\u2019 own making. They have watched as players like Fredrik \u2018roeJ\u2019 J\u00f8rgensen, Jakob \u2018jabbi\u2019 Nygaard, Valdemar \u2018valde\u2019 Bj\u00f8rn Vangs\u00e5, and Victor \u2018Staehr\u2019 Staehr have switched teams in recent months and gone on to book tickets to Rio. In some cases, there were doubts about the players\u2019 ability; in others, concerns about whether they had the necessary mental fortitude to play for Denmark\u2019s biggest team, one that is constantly under scrutiny by a large fanbase and the country\u2019s media. The biggest issue with having to rebuild during a Major is that most interesting players will be attending the event, leaving you with no chance to test things out for a number of weeks. But Astralis should not be in a hurry to finalize their lineup. The failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major might end up being a blessing in disguise. It will give Astralis the time, and the motive, to carefully plan their next steps and end their cycle of Band-Aid solutions to chronic problems. Their next event, the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown in just a week, is already a write-off \u2014 a huge blow as it means that they will miss out on the season finals at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, the organization\u2019s home turf. With nothing left to fight for in 2022, Astralis might as well focus on building a long-term blueprint. From H\u00f8rsholt\u2019s words, it seems clear that Astralis will put time, effort and money into building a title contender in 2023. This is the chance for them to start a new era and build a team that can step out of the shadow of the Major-winning lineup, once and for all. \u201cNo one will ever reach that level of dominance, but that does not change the task on hand: We must restore clarity in the way we do things, and we must return to a position where we are in the fight for titles and top positions,\u201d the Astralis CEO said. \u201cIt won\u2019t happen overnight, but the work has begun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IEM Rio CSGO Major failure sparks Astralis revolution Adela Sznajder\/ESL Gaming via ESPATJust days after failing to qualify for the IEM Rio Major, Astralis have begun the process of cleaning house. The question is: Where do they go from here? We all knew how it was going to end \u2014 the only question was when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}